HS TRACK: Tall City Invitational notebook

Published 5:10 pm, Saturday, March 2, 2013

Midland's De'andre Goodley crosses the finish line after running in the boys 100 meter dash during the Tall City Relays on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

Midland's De'andre Goodley crosses the finish line after running in the boys 100 meter dash during the Tall City Relays on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: JAMES DURBIN

HS TRACK: Tall City Invitational notebook

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GOODLEY HOPES TO BE NEXT GREAT MHS SPRINTER: DeAndre Goodley knows as well as anyone what kind of shoes he has to fill sprinting at Midland High. The Bulldogs have had a strong run of sprinters in recent years, dating back to Baron Batch to most recently Tyler Middleton.

Somewhere between Batch and Middleton, though, came Antwan Goodley, who is now a receiver at Baylor University. DeAndre Goodley is Antwan's younger cousin, and began making his own mark as a receiver for the Bulldogs this past fall. He's now hoping to follow in his cousin's footsteps on the track as well.

"I saw (Antwan run once, but I know what guys like him and Tyler Middleton did here," Goodley said. "It's a good feeling to know what Antwan was capable of and what I'm capable of. I'm setting my goals high like he did and seeing what I can achieve."

On Saturday, Goodley picked up his second gold medal of the Rogers Ford Lincoln Tall City Invitational, winning the 100 meters with a time of 11.18 seconds. And while the mark was a bit slower than the 10.8 he posted last week in Wolfforth, he's still excited to get a win.

"I just came out here to compete," said Goodley, who won the long jump with a mark of 22 feet even Friday. "I was a bit slower. I don't know what was going on, but I'm glad I came out with a win."

Goodley's coaches are raving about his commitment to both football and track since football season has ended, and claim he's starting to mature and understand what it takes to be the type of athlete his older cousin is.

"I want to get out of here and actually do something with myself," Goodley said. "I can't be stuck behind just watching. I've got to go out and actually get it."

MCS BOYS EDGED BY EP AUSTIN: The Midland Christian boys track team held a slight lead in the Division II team standings heading into the final two events of the day, but couldn't hold off El Paso Austin in the end.

Austin ended up snatching the team title away from the Mustangs with 151 points. MCS was a single point behind in second place.

The Mustangs had a 9-point advantage heading into the 1,600 meters -- the second to last event -- but Austin's Keegan Rankin pulled the Golden Panthers within three points with a third-place finish in the event.

Austin then gradually pulled away for the win in the 1,600-meter relay with a time of 3:29.65, which was more than four seconds better than MCS in second place. But MCS coach Chris McKinney was not disappointed with the outcome, and was relieved to get that kind of competition at the meet.

"It's always better to run against good schools," McKinney said. "I'm glad they were here to make it a little bit better. I thought they competed well, I thought we could have competed in the big division. We ran a lot of times better than them."

Matt Ramirez had the strongest weekend for Midland Christian, winning gold in the high jump, 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles with a silver in the 1,600 relay. His mark of 40.13 in the 300 hurdles was the best of the meet, regardless of division.

"Every week I'm seeing a change, seeing it get better and better," Ramirez said. "This is not my final goal. I'm proud of myself, but today will never be good enough again."

RAY SHOWS OFF HER SPEED: Lee junior Shay Ray won yet another gold medal in the 100 meters, coming in at a time of 12.29. Her closest competition was more than a tenth of a second behind her at 12.40.

Ray's ultimate goal this season is to get her time under the 12-second mark, which she knows she must achieve for any chance of advancing to the state meet.

"I'm feeling really good about it because I'm getting closer to my 11," Ray said. "My starts are so much better. I'm so proud of (Saturday's) start and (Friday's) start."

The best example of Ray's speed came during the anchor leg of the 400 relay, though. Knowing she had some ground to make up, Ray missed the initial handoff from teammate Taylor Roberts and had to slow down to ensure she got the baton in her hand.

By the time she had secured the baton, both Lubbock Coronado's Carmen Clark and San Angelo Central's Debbie Niang were well ahead of her. Ray managed to run down Niang, but couldn't quite catch Clark as the Lady Rebels finished second in the event.

Even so, Lee coach Mike Connelly timed Ray at 11.8 seconds during her leg of the relay.

"We had a bad exchange," Ray said. "I just took off after I got it. I knew I was going to catch them. I knew we were getting first or second. I wasn't settling for third."

Ray also finished third in the long jump with a mark of 15 feet, 5 3/4 inches.

STREUN: "A WELL-RAN MEET": Midland High boys coach Jeff Streun had plenty of praise to pass out after the Bulldogs placed second in the overall team standings. He particularly mentioned the efforts of sophomore Lane Manor, who finished fourth in the 800 and 1,600 meters, giving the Bulldogs some much-needed points in the distance races.

But Streun seemed most impressed by the flow of the meet, and praised the efforts of the Lee coach staff, led by head football coach James Morton, as the main reason.

"I thought coach Morton and his guys did a great job with the meet," Streun said. "That thing went very smoothly. It was a well-ran meet."